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FOREST RESEARCH NOTES 

NORTHEASTERN FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION 

Upper Darby , Pennsylvania 

No. 27 

January 1954 

Regeneration After Clear-Cutting 

Second-Growth Northern Hardwoods 

Regeneration after clear-cutting second-growth north- / 

ern hardwoods is often unsatisfactory, in both quantity and 

0 species composition. A small area on the Bartlett Experimental Forest near Bartlett, N. H., provides a good example. 

 oht ti on At Time Of Cutting 

This area (1.4 acres) was in a stand on an old pasture. In 1936 it was well stocked with an even-aged 60-yearold stand of red maple, white ash, paper birch, and aspen, 

with smaller amounts of yellow birch, sugar maple, and 

beech. That winter the stand was thinned; about 30 percent 

of the basal area was cut. Then in 1938 the hurricane blew 

down nearly all the trees on the study area. A year later, 

all stems 2 inches d.b.h, and larger were cut. Thus by 

stages the overstory was completely removed in 3 years. 

Immediately after the 1939 clear-cutting, blackberry 

and raspberry were abundant over the entire cleared area. A 

a dense stand (11,000 per acre) of small white ash was also 

present. The ash had seeded in after the thinning, but before theblowdown, Therewas alsoaheavystand of small 

pin cherry,.as well as a few larger but scattered beech, red 

maple, and sugar maple seedlings. There was very little 

advance growth of yellow birch, and no paper birch or aspen. 

Reproduction was tallied on 80 milacres in four different parts of the clear-cut area. A 22-milacre str5.g near 

the edge of the clearing was fully exposed on the north 

side, but was somewhat protected by the adjacent thinned 

stand on the other three sides. The other three sample 

strips (58 milacres) were well within the clearing; they 

were fully exposed. These strips provided a good sample of 

the advance reproduction. 

Forty percent of the milacres mere stocked with one 

or more stems of timber species 3 feet or taller, and 58 

percent had seedlings of the same species more than 1 foot 

1 

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  7 

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high. Stocking was much better on the protected strip 

(table 1); 17 of the milacres (77 percent) had reproduction 

of timber species at least 1 foot high. 

Table 1.-Reproduction at clear-cutting and 10 years later 

Location of Milacres 

sample strip 

Milacres stocked 

Number Per- Per- Per- Per- 

- cent cent - - cent cent - 

Protected 22 59 77 86 86 

In open 58 33 50 34 62 

1939 

e 

3 

feet 

high 

1949 3 

10 Years Later 

Reproduction was tallied again on the same sample 

strips in 1949. On the protected strip, 19 of the 22 milacres had crop trees 6 feet or more in height; 8 beech, 

8 sugar maple, 2 red maple, and 1 paper birch. The milacres 

that did not have 6-foot crop trees were more exposed, in 

the center of the strip, 

On the open strips, only a third of the sample milacres were stocked with trees 6 feet or taller. White ash 

reproduction was found here; so was one white pine seedling. 

Otherwise the same species were found as on the protected 

strip (table 2). The stocking in 1949 was only a little 

greater than the amount of advance reproduction in 1939. 

The importance of +festablishedtt advance reproduction 

is well illustrated on this area. Although white ash had 

been abundant in 1939 (mostly as 1- or 2-year seedlings less 

than a foot high), a few survived after clear-cutting. There 

mas little paper birch or yellow birch 10 years'after clearcutting, in spite of plentiful seed trees. 

The timber species apparently could not compete with 

the rank growth of blackberries and raspberries that came in 

after the 1936-37 thinning and developed fully after the 

0 

2 

b A 

1 

foot 

high 

6 

feet 

high 

3 i 

feet 

high 
Table 2,--Reproduction on open milacres, 1949 

Stocked with trees-- 1 

I Milacres Milacres I 

Species 

Beech 

Yellow birch 

Sugar maple 

Red maple 

Paper birch 

White ash 

White pine 

I 

6 

feet 

high 

Unstocked 

3 

feet 

high 

I Tatal 58 58 1 

hurricane. Very open stand conditions would otherwise have 

been favorable to regeneration, especially of birch. 

All together, stocking on this clear-cut area was 

poor in 1949; regeneration was retarded at least 10 years. 

There were few dominant crop trees in the center of the 

area. The smaller trees were still in competition with 

raspberries and blackberries. The stocking of timber species 

was good around the edges of the clearing and was gradually 

working in toward the center, but the berries were still the 

dominant cover over most of the area. 

--ROBERT W. WILSON Jr. and VICTOR S. JENSEN 

Agriculture-Forest Service-Upper Darby, Pa.